BY MULUGETA GUDETA
Efforts to advertise Ethiopian films abroad seems to be gaining momentum with this year’s staging of Ethiopian Film Week that is slated to present local films to foreign audiences. This is an effort that was initiated recently and going strong with the participation of private and public institutions that are committed to making local films become available to filmgoers outside the country.
This year’s Ethiopian Film week will take place in London in mid-October and the first film to be present among many others is said to be the country’s first black and white film. According to a recent press release from Habesha view, a private company has initiated the project two years ago. “Following its creation two years ago Ethiopian Film Week has gone from ‘strength to strength’ according to Tigist Kebede, Operations Director of Habesha view.”
The press release went on to say that, “The multi-faceted media, entertainment and advanced technology company’s much-anticipated Ethiopian Film Week is set to return to London for its third year this month with a line-up of original and acclaimed Ethiopian films.” adding that, “kicking off on October 14, the screenings will take place at RichMix Cinema in East London and will feature three independent films from Ethiopia…The star of this year’s line-up will be the world premiere of the historical Ethiopian film, Hirut Abatwa Mannew?, which is being screened outside Ethiopia for the first time.”
The press release further noted that people at Habeshaview feel honored “to be able to bring this iconic film to the UK 57 years after it was first shot and hope that the Ethiopian community in the UK and the British public will appreciate just what Ethiopian cinema has to offer by joining us in celebrating our local filmmakers and actors.
“Ethiopia has a long history of filmmaking, and the film industry is rapidly evolving.There are so many amazing actors, filmmakers, and directors, and through Habeshaview, we hope to use our platform to showcase their incredible, untapped talents and create a space where they can exhibit their work.”
The recent rediscovery of Hirut, which is also considered Ethiopia’s first feature-length film, 57 years after it was produced, has generated significant interest in Ethiopia and abroad. In Ethiopia, there was an exclusive screening at the Sheraton Addis Hotel in Addis Abeba.”
Saying that Ethiopia is a rich and diverse country both culturally and geographically has long become a stereotype or a hackneyed phrase that did little in changing foreign perceptions about the country. Ethiopia is among the first countries, if not the first country in Africa, for producing a modern feature film known as Hirut abatwa manew or “Who is Hirut’s Father?” a film, “which is Ethiopia’s first black and white 35mm movie, tells the story of a young woman who overcomes many challenges including the stigma of being a single mother and is forced to fend for herself in the conservative society of Ethiopia in the mid-60s.”
The Ethiopian film industry has made some progress over the last 60 years but it has not yet made the expected progress commensurate with its age. At a time when most, if not all African countries were living under colonial rule, Ethiopians had produced a film which importance is still reverberating in the local movie industry. However, it is sad to say that Ethiopia is now ranking among African countries where the industry is still underdeveloped.
Meanwhile the film business has grown into a global entertainment industry whose annual turnover equals those of the biggest multinational companies. It has outlived its cultural functions and grown into a money making machine.
In the last 60 years or so the Ethiopian film industry has indeed made baby steps to catch up with its African counterparts and we are not so sure whether it has lived up to the promises. Nigeria, Egypt, Senegal, South Africa and even Kenya have a far more advanced film industries whose contributions to the economies of these countries have become the envy of African filmmakers. The problem of Ethiopia’s retardation in this particular field is “a tale told by a fool full of anger and fury” to borrow from Shakespeare.
Elsewhere in Africa, the film industry creates tens of thousands of jobs every year, brings huge incomes to the state coffers in tax revenue, plays a positive role in media technology transfer and serves as a catalyst to the tourist industry in many ways. Cinema plays an irreplaceable role in introducing and popularizing African countries for their rich flora and fauna, the cultures, traditions, ancient civilizations that are usually the poles of attraction for tourists from Western and other countries. The budding Chinese film industry is next to none in providing a model of development worth emulating. The Chinese film industry itself is in a way a replica of the Western model but with its local contents and story lines that are authentically Chinese.
On the other hand, the Nigerian film industry has become so efficient and competitive that it has its own niche in the global film business. Nollywood is nowadays mentioned next to Hollywood and Bollywood and is producing hundreds of films every year for the Nigerian audience as well as for export. It has well-developed its own identity based on Nigerian history, cultures and traditions. Incomes from export of Nigerian films are growing steadily and have become reliable sources of hard currency in addition to creating thousands of jobs to members of the young generation.
South African movies that conquering the global audience particularly after the end of Apartheid in the country and the growing demand for information about the country and its people that remained sealed off from the world during the long years of white rule.
On the contrary, the Ethiopian film industry possesses everything it takes to become as influential and as profitable as its other African counterparts. However, it lacks one major ingredient and that is lack of penetration into the global market due to the relatively obscure status in which Ethiopian films are kept due to the absence of aggressive public relation work both at home and abroad. This has kept Ethiopian filmmakers intimidated by the steady growth of the genre in other countries. Another disadvantage that Ethiopian filmmakers got is the fact that their films are made in the national languages and fail to access to the global audience that needs to understand what the films are all about.
Nigeria and the other African countries enjoy relative advantage in this area. Their films are either made in English or translated into English because they have rich, experienced and professional institutions that are engaged in these activities besides its colonial past that facilitate the work. Ethiopia has a a long and very rich story-telling tradition but filmmakers turn their backs to it and try to imitate Western-style story telling techniques and themes that are not reflecting Ethiopian realities and the life of the people. Ethiopian films are made by Ethiopian whose mentality is not yet changed.
Ethiopian filmmakers often try to imitate Western cinema traditions and fail to look into their own traditions and the issues that agitate the people in their daily lives. That is why most of the local films have turned out to be mediocre imitations of one another and are stuck in the so-called “romantic comedy” genre long abandoned by foreign filmmakers even the Indians who pioneered the genre in the 1950s and 1960s.
If Ethiopian filmmakers want their productions to conquer the world they need to make a radical change of perception and adopt a new approach to themes, techniques, acting and the other elements of film production. They have to dig into their rich history, traditions, and cultures and make new and modern films without losing their Ethiopian identities.
Nigerian films are celebrated everywhere in the world because they introduce their traditions to the world in a way that captures the imaginations of the global audience. They make use of techniques adapted to their cultures and are unknown to the external world. They approach new and modern themes with traditional eyes that give their films their own identities.
The Chinese too are proceeding along similar paths as they make use of their tradition of martial arts to introduce the global audience to the blockbusters genre with Chinese contents and colors. They do not try to blindly imitate Hollywood that is already past its prime but bring to the silver screen films that are tales of courage, patriotism with insight, complexity and amazing by any standards.
The Ethiopian film industry is stuck in time and produces and reproduces similar films that have become boring and often an insult to the conscious of the audience that may know about movies better than the so-called self-styled connoisseurs or movie gurus. Ethiopian films are done without professional knowledge and training and aim at making as much money at the box office as possible by appealing to the base instincts of movie goers, who are often inexperienced youngsters. They appeal to the senses and not to the rational or reasonable mind that seeks both to entertain and teach some kind of lesson.
It is therefore incumbent on Ethiopian filmmakers to look inwards at themselves in a professional way and make amends before they eye the foreign audience or the foreign movie market turns towards them. It is only when they make films that appeal to the local audience in a satisfactory way that they can have the courage and the boldness to look outwards at the global marketplace.
They should for instance create national institutions for the translation of Ethiopian films into foreign languages without which they may not find audiences abroad or prove their worth. Like music, cinema is increasingly becoming an international language through which cultures speak to one another. Economically speaking good movies make as much money abroad as do rare commodities. They are consumed and appreciated.
The Ethiopian Herald October 20/2022
